Prosecutor’s Office appeals court recheck sentences on three notorious cases

Today Georgia’s Chief Prosecutor’s Office stated they would address to the Court of Appeals to recheck sentences on three notorious cases under the previous state leadership, two of them well-known  murder cases. 

All the three cases took place under the former United National Movement (UNM) Government.  

The Prosecutor’s Office says they had carried out a "comprehensive investigation” over the cases and obtained "strong evidence” that the people sentenced for the crimes were innocent. 

The Prosecutor’s Office believed after rechecking the cases by the court the people "who were illegally sentenced” for the cases, would cure their "violated rights.” 

The first case named by the Prosecutor’s Office was a notorious murder of an electricity provider Telasi Financial Director Nikoloz Lominadze, who was killed in 2006. 

Five people were sentenced for committing premeditated murder of Lominadze in aggravating circumstances in August 2006. 

Today representatives of Georgia's Chief Prosecutor's Office met some of the individuals whom they believe to had been illegally sentenced under the previous state leadership. Photo by Chief Prosecutor's press office.  

The people were Giorgi and Nodar Gvichiani, Nika Chemia, Avtandil Kherkeladze and Giorgi Papachashvili. 

Murdering Lominadze with a silenced Makarov pistol was taken as irrefutable evidence by the court when sentencing the people, while the investigation conducted by us excluded committing the crime with such a weapon,” the Prosecutor’s Office said. 

The Office also stressed "high-ranking officials were interested in quick opening of the case” and a series of "fabricated evidence” were invented for sentencing the people. 

The next case the Prosecutor’s Office re-investigated concerned the murder of General Tamaz Ninua and his wife Eter Ninua in November 2009. 

A citizen of Georgia Tamaz Gogia was sentenced 17 years in prison for committing the murder, which, based on the previous investigation, was motivated by a dispute regarding a company shares. 

In this situation the court decided that remnants of gunpowder on Gogia’s hands was irrefutable evidence, when the re-investigation revealed no gunpowder on the convict’s hands,” the Prosecutor’s Office said. 

The Office added that some law enforcers "were personally interested” in sentencing Gogia for the murder and a range of false evidence were used against him in the process. 

The third case that would be rechecked by the Court of Appeals was related to the UNM Government’s special operation in the country’s western Kodori Gorge in 2006 to arrest members of a battalion Hunter, which, according to the previous leadership, created a threat for the state integrity. 

The current Prosecutor’s Office says that Nora Arghvliani, sister of Emzar Kvitsiani who led the battalion, was illegally detained and sentenced "to make influence on Kvitsiani to surrender”. 

The court sentenced Arghvliani for keeping large amount of weapons at her home, for appropriation of humanitarian goods targeted  for one of the villages of western Svaneti  region and urging the Hunter not to surrender. 

The Prosecutor’s Office says all the accusations were invented and Argvliani illegally spent six years behind bars, until she was released under the Georgian Dream Government in 2012.